[TND] 9.18 Argentine-style burgers

Another recipe out of Fine Cooking (and on the web, apparently), this recipe went against my current thinking in terms of burger-crafting. It involves saute-ing garlic, onions and jalapenos, letting them cool, and combining that mixture, cilantro, oregano, salt and pepper with the ground beef. For most of the summer, I've been simply adding kosher salt as I make the patties, which both minimizes the amount of handling and gives it all the flavor it really needs. Especially if you use all natural, grain fed, additive free beef. Additional flavor and texture
can be added on top of the burger, so kosher salt is all you really need for burger qua burger. I used 90%, since it was what was on sale (and actually, the only ground beef I could find), but if I were to do this recipe again, I would definitely use at least 85%, and probably 80%. The charcoal grill requires a higher fat content, even if the additions serve to keep it a bit moister.

The burgers got put into pita pockets with sliced red onions and a chimichurri sauce, which is basically parsley, mint, oregano, lime juice, olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper. The sauce I would definitely use again, probably with less mint. I think it'd be delightful on fish.

I also made sweet potato fries. Sliced them into 1/4" sticks, coated in oil, sprinkled with salt, turbinado sugar and pepper, and roasted at 450 for about 20 min. They were pretty good, and I learned an important lesson about aluminum foil and non stick pans. I would like a way to mass produce the fries, maybe frying them would actually be faster, since there's only two oven racks and you need to single layer them.

Not sure about next week. It may be cold enough for mac'n'cheese, or it may be time to start experimenting with shepherd's pie.